Timebound by Rysa Walker

Published July 12, 2019

Book info

Title Timebound

Author Rysa Walker

Year 2012

Genres Time-travel, Young adult, Science fiction

When Kate Pierce-Keller’s grandmother gives her a strange blue medallion and speaks of time travel, sixteen-year-old Kate assumes the old woman is delusional. But it all becomes horrifyingly real when a murder in the past destroys the foundation of Kate’s present-day life. Suddenly, that medallion is the only thing protecting Kate from blinking out of existence. Kate learns that the 1893 killing is part of something much more sinister, and her genetic ability to time travel makes Kate the only one who can fix the future. Risking everything, she travels back in time to the Chicago World’s Fair to try to prevent the murder and the chain of events that follows. Changing the timeline comes with a personal cost—if Kate succeeds, the boy she loves will have no memory of her existence. And regardless of her motives, does Kate have the right to manipulate the fate of the entire world?

Review

My obsession with time travel leads me to unexpected cultural output sometimes, and this book took me by surprise. It’s a full on action adventure, full of omg they’re changing the time lines drama, and oof this person could blink out of existence at any moment tension. I’ll admit, the finer details did get a bit clunky and confusing for me - a lot of people in the same place at the same time, and the extended family with an extensive history was a lot to take in.

But just go with it and you’ve got a very good time travel adventure, wherein a girl discovers she has a gift and is then forced to use it a little before she’s ready to save her family and the life she knows. There’s romance, there’s friendship and families, as well as historical events and even a potential murder or two. It’s good. Confusing, as all good time travel stories should be, a little muddled in places, but worth it.

It’s part of a trilogy, so I’ll be hunting down the next one at some point, but maybe it’s not first on the list.